Drink wine in Cornish hotel, talk to winemaker in New Zealand

Louise Treseder’s guests are able to enjoy wines at the same time as being able to talk with the master winemaker on the other side of the world.

Driftwood Spars is a 4-star B&B, restaurant, and microbrewery next to the beach in St Agnes, on the west coast of Cornwall.

Thanks to video conferencing, guests can hear first-hand about wines from the people who make them, like Gordon Russell of Esk Valley Wines in New Zealand.

The key to survival in a competitive marketplace is to adapt and diversify. The arrival of fibre broadband is enabling Louise to do things in new ways, improving both productivity and the service she’s able to offer customers.

One of the ways that Louise has done this is to hold regular wine-tasting events with a difference. This has only been possible since Louise had fibre broadband installed.

Fibre’s been spot on, a really good connection.

- Louise Treseder, Driftwood Spars

‘It’s essential that our fibre broadband is reliable. When we’re doing our video conferencing I have 40 customers here, ready to enjoy a glass of wine with their meal’ says Louise. ‘If it drops out or the audio or visuals are no good, I have 40 really dissatisfied customers. [With fibre], it’s been spot on – a really good connection – and it’s reliable’, she says.

The business is also keen on attracting business clients when tourism is out of season. Again, fibre broadband is essential to Louise’s business plan.

‘Business clients are able to work from here, even though they’re down by the beach. They can connect to their work servers and with colleagues anywhere around the world, via our superfast broadband’.

Online booking is now instantaneous.

Superfast fibre broadband is helping Driftwood Spars to streamline the way they run their business every day. With speeds of 35Mbps, online booking is now instantaneous rather than taking a few minutes; they’re saving time with emails, online research, and uploading photos to their website and Facebook page.

All clients, business and tourist, can use the free wi-fi to connect their devices to the internet.

‘Just over 2 years ago we got fibre broadband – before that our internet was dire. It was very frustrating, customers were constantly complaining about how they couldn’t access it. We were promising them free wi-fi and it just wasn’t happening’, said Louise.

‘I investigated BT fibre and thought this is what I need: proper broadband for my business, my customers, and me. I haven’t looked back since.’